Volleyball Drops 3-Setter To Bowling Green

Thursday, October 14

Mount Pleasant, MI

6 P.M.

Central Michigan University

8-11,2-5MAC

Bowling Green

11-6,7-0MAC

Bowling Green

Central Mich.

Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw

10/14/2021 9:25:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Central Michigan volleyball team came alive in the third set on Thursday and gave Bowling Green a good run, but in the end the Chippewas could not string together enough sustained rallies in falling in three sets in a Mid-American Conference match at McGuirk Arena.

The Chippewas slipped to 8-11, 2-5 MAC in falling to the defending league champion Falcons, who improved to 11-6, 7-0. The teams are set to play on Saturday (11 a.m.) at McGuirk in the finale of their two-match set.

"I felt like there were really good moments for us throughout the match, I thought there were really good stretches of rallies," CMU coach Mike Gawlik said. "In order to go where we want to go, we've said we need to go through Bowling Green. And they've earned that; I mean that respectfully. We've got to take a step forward on Saturday and learn from this match."

Bowling Green won the first two sets, both by 25-19 scores, and then took the third, 25-23. The Falcons hit at .269 on the night to the Chippewas' .121.

Savannah Thompson had nine kills to lead the Chippewas, while Elly Medendorp added seven while posting an .875 hitting percentage.

Thompson helped lead the charge in the third set, when the Chippewas seized three three-point leads, the first at 15-12, the second at 17-14, and the last at 22-19. Thompson had six of her kills in the third set.

Bowling Green scored six of the set's final seven points to pull out the victory.

"One of the things that has to be a focus of ours going into Saturday's match is the consistency of our play," Gawlik said. "(The Falcons) play really mature, composed, poised volleyball. So even when you're in those runs of points, they're going to answer.

"That third set was the best one for us from start to finish, I think it was there for the taking. … But we've got to be two points better, we've got to find a way to flip a couple of those opportunities."

The Falcons used 6-0 runs in taking control of the first two sets. In the first, they went up 13-6 with a 6-0 spurt and CMU never got closer than four the rest of the way; in the second, they used a 6-0 surge to increase their lead to 21-12.

"I felt that we just lost focus in those first two sets," Gawlik said. "It might have been a three-minute or four-minute stretch, but a team as good as Bowling Green makes you pay for that. They force you to go back-to-back points and claw tooth and nail for every single rally."